Gabby Petito’s parents have won a court ruling to gain access to a letter that Brian Laundrie’s mother offered him a shovel and garbage bags if he needed to dispose of a body, according to a letter enclosed in an envelope that said “burn after reading,” court filings reveal.
The letter was released to Gabby Petito’s parents Wednesday after a Florida judge denied a request from Laundrie’s parents to withhold it. The two families go to a civil trial next year.
Petito’s body was found on Sept. 19, 2021, in Wyoming, and the cause of her death was later ruled a homicide as she died by “manual strangulation“ at least three weeks earlier, a coroner said.
Laundrie’s body was found in a nature preserve near his parents home on Oct. 20, 2021. FBI said he left behind notes“claiming responsibility” for Petito’s death. A medical examiner ruled that Laundrie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Petito’s parents had relentlesly requested a copy of Roberta Laundrie’s letter to her son several times, most recently earlier this month, court filings show.
Attorney for the Petito family, shared a copy of the letter which reads:
“I just want you to remember I will always love you, and I know you will always love me. You are my boy. Nothing can make me stop loving you, nothing will or could ever divide us no matter what we do, or where we go or what we say — we will always love each other,” Roberta Laundrie wrote.
“If you’re in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags. If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re-entry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts,” the letter continued.
Roberta Laundrie included a Bible verse from Romans 8:38.
She ended the letter by saying: “(Nothing can separate us: not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not threats, not even sin, not the thinkable or unthinkable can get between us.) ~ Not time. Not miles and miles and miles. ~”
The letter was in an envelope that said, “Brian Christopher Laundrie (burn after reading).”